Apathy doesn't suit you
by ShibusAran
Summary: A quick oneshot whilst I get back into the swing of writing; Zelda coaxes Samus into speaking her mind and gets a little more than she bargained for. Rated M for implied adult themes at the very end.


Samus exhaled; smoke clouded her vision, and somewhere in the back of her mind she wished that it would choke her out. But it didn't, and she was left in the crushing silence that weighed on her shoulders as it always did.

She stroked the side of the cigarette with her index finger, and sighed. The cityscape looked so calm draped in moonlight, and for a moment she almost forgot that it was filled to the brim with people and vehicles far too busy spinning the capitalist wheel to look around and see what truth they were living.

A hushed swish of glass doors hardly stole Samus' attention, but the sight of a clearly concerned Zelda in her nightgown absolutely did. The heat rushed to her cheeks, and she growled against the cigarette. It was times like these that she remembered that Zelda was a fully grown, matured young woman that had the same struggles and needs as she did, even if she did hold that royal posture.

Zelda waved a hand in front of her face to waft away the fumes. Even if Samus' lungs weren't affected by the smoke, hers certainly were.

"Apathy doesn't suit you, Samus." She said, dissatisfied and almost sad.

Samus scoffed, but said nothing. She held the cigarette loosely between her lips, folded her arms, and leaned against the bar. The view was just as Zelda had described it to her, to a T in fact, but the knot in her chest and the heaviness that weighted her feet to the ground seemed to dull any beauty it held.

"Save yourself."

Zelda felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach. Samus sounded as though she had repeated that phrase a thousand times and then a hundred more.

"Does anything we fight for even mean anything?" Cold words slipped bitterly past Samus' lips, as though more to herself than anyone. Pushing back from the railing, she ran shaking fingers through her hair; this was getting too heavy, and she could tell by the distant ache in Zelda's eyes that she was already suffering with something else. She wouldn't be the one to drag her down any further.

Zelda cast her eyes away, and sighed.  
"What happened to you, Samus?" She asked through a low murmur and tapped her fingertips absentmindedly against the cool metal under her grip. It brought little comfort, but it eased the tension when Samus didn't as much as stir.  
"You used to be so into your work... like you were proud of what you did. I saw you stand tall with your name plastered across every billboard, every magazine, the hero of space who was making a difference! Now whenever I see you-"

Their eyes met, and Zelda was taken aback by the tears that drowned any trace of resentment from azure eyes. Samus stared back at her with a gaze that locked her feet to their spot. It was raw; broken and conflicted; and she knew that she'd hit home. Shaking fingers plucked the cigarette from her lips.

"Because the difference I made wasn't a good one."

Silence fell between them, and Samus was the one to close the distance between them. She took Zelda's hands gingerly, save for the two fingers now clasping the cigarette as though it were her lifeline, and squeezed them tight.

"I can't drag you down with me, Zelda. I thought what I was doing would help people, or that somehow by killing whatever I kill I'd create some sort of intergalactic peace. It doesn't work that way, Zelda. I kill sentient beings. I kill creatures who were only doing what they were taught to do, and regardless of their intentions that doesn't make me any better than them. I'm a horrible person, and I kill, and I have too much emotional baggage. My childhood, my job and my... addictions," Her breath hitched, and the fingers clasping her cigarette trembled, "...They don't excuse that. They don't make me any less horrible. The only thing that defines us is what we do, and all I've done is destroy – no matter who or what I'm protecting."

"Why do you never just drop this big bad bounty hunter act and tell me how you really feel?" Zelda asked, her voice hot and strained. Samus smiled wryly, and shrugged her shoulders. Zelda hated when she did that. She bottled up everything, everything all the time, and by the time Zelda had finally coaxed it out of her the damage had already been done.

"Because what we have is real, honey." She answered simply, "Love isn't like it is in whatever fairy tales they told you whilst you were all locked up in that castle and they scoured the land for some handsome prince to sweep you off of your feet. Love isn't like that. It isn't sunsets and rolling credits.  
We're messy. We shouldn't be here, like this, and you know that. I know that. That's why it's so _good_." She murmured throatily as she closed in, and Zelda trembled.

"Tell me," She paused, pulling Zelda into an unexpectedly rough kiss. It was long, deep, and Zelda groaned as Samus' mouth slanted against hers; smoke daubing over her perfume. Samus broke away suddenly and took a few steps back, leaving Zelda reeling and gazing up at her with dazed eyes like a deer in headlights, "...Would that have been as satisfying if I had kissed you every time you wanted me to?"

Zelda's face had flushed, both from excitement and frustration. She breathed out sharply through gritted teeth, and could no longer meet the blonde's cocky stare. Her relief had crumbled into deprivation the moment Samus had put distance between them, but she couldn't admit that, and so she turned her back.

"Alright, I get it. You're an outlaw and I'm a princess, I'm not a baby and you needn't talk to me like one." She said sternly, with a firmness that Samus wouldn't admit shook her core.

"You're cute when you're angry." Samus smirked, wrapping her arms around Zelda's waist from behind and pulled their bodies close together. Zelda repressed a sharp gasp, and her body shuttered. It took every fibre of her being not to melt into the embrace as Samus' lips brushed against the back of her ear.

"Don't patronise me."

"Alright. You're sexy when you're angry."

Zelda released the breath she didn't know she'd been holding; an involuntary whimper escaping her lips as Samus began to plant slow, warm kisses up from the base of her ear.

"Don't you dare..." She breathed shakily, but her body betrayed her words and she pressed back against the blonde coyly.

It was going to be a long night.


End file.
